


One Small Hitch: Flashbacks

by sprstarinfrance



Series: One Small Hitch [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-14 13:56:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7174565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprstarinfrance/pseuds/sprstarinfrance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>snapshots, flashbacks, and other odds and ends from the One Small Hitch Universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mistletoe [Pre Series]

**Author's Note:**

> I accidentally deleted this! Whoops. So while I'm working on getting back on track with OSH, I'll be slowly reposting these snapshots, along with a few new ones. 
> 
> Thanks for the patience, guys. I haven't forgotten you I swear!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy is gross, and Thea is a giant bah humbug.

“Ew, gross!”

 

Felicity darted her eyes to the entryway of the ballroom, and found Tommy basically chewing off some random girls face. “Yeah. Really gross.”

 

“Tommy is so disgusting,” Thea muttered annoyed glaring at her Shirley Temple, “And mistletoe is so lame.”

 

“Hmm.” Felicity added agreeing to some of Thea’s points. True, Tommy was being pretty disgusting, and she felt sorry for that poor girl he had probably conned under it, but mistletoe wasn’t always lame. It could pretty awesome, you know, if you happened to be under it with the right person…

 

“And this party is so stupid!”

 

While Felicity didn’t really want to go to the annual Queen family Holiday party, a custom she still thought was rather weird considering the two hosting it had been officially divorced for a over a year now, she realized now that her plan of avoiding her mother by hanging out with a sixth grader near the coat closet wasn’t the best plan, mainly because Thea was being a giant bah humbug and apparently hated everything today.

 

However as grumpy as Thea was being, it was probably a lot better then her mother trying to set her up with the sons of all the rich CEO’s at the party. Felicity had tried explaining to her mother that just because she was in college, didn’t mean she should date college guys, especially seeing as she was still sixteen, but those kind of semantics didn’t really seem to bother Donna Merlyn.

 

“You know the party is the other room right?”

 

Her heart skipped a beat and she didn’t have to look over to know who it was, but she did anyways, and somehow he looked better then he had the last time she saw him five months ago when she had left for MIT.

 

Thea muttered something under her breath, and judging by Oliver’s amused smirk, it wasn’t exactly nice.

 

“You’re lucky I love you or I would totally tell Mom what you just said.”

 

She rolled her eyes, “Please, like I don’t have worse dirt on you. I know you dropped out of college… again.”

 

He pressed his lips, and she could tell he was trying to remind calm. “And I know what really happened to Mom’s missing Chanel purse. Chocolate pudding right?”

 

“You wouldn’t.”

 

“I would.”

 

Sighing Felicity let the two bicker, staring off into space… which happened to be the direction was where Tommy was under the mistletoe with… “Seriously?!” She growled glaring at her brother.

 

Thea and Oliver shot over to her pausing, and she pointed at Tommy, “It’s a different girl! It’s been like two minutes. Where did the other girl go, and where did he find this one?!”

 

Oliver shrugged although he looked sort of impressed, and Thea gagged loudly. “So gross. I hate mistletoe.”

 

He made a move a try to kiss her, and Thea shoved him, “Ugh! Get off, Ollie!” And then without warning stormed off.

 

“She okay?” Felicity asked Oliver who sighed.

 

“Mom has a new ‘friend’, which means Thea’s naïve dreams of Mom and Dad getting back together will never happen.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Felicity knew that the divorce had really screwed Thea up emotionally. She went from trying to ‘parent trap’ her parents, to refusing to talk to them, to threatening to move in with her grandmother (which no one believed because Grandma Dearden was the devil), to acting up in school, and well, basically everything. Acceptance was the one thing she refused to deal with.

 

“How are you doing?” She asked although she knew in a million years he wouldn’t actually talk to her about it.

 

“Eh,” He shrugged, and as she expected just brushed it off, “Merry Christmas, Felicity.”

 

“I’m Jewish.”

 

“I know.” He smirked before leaning down to peck her on the cheek.

 

She didn’t know how long she stood there after he walked away, her face still on fire before one very familiar and not very welcome voice interrupted her haze.

 

“Baby! There you are!”

 

Felicity winced as her mother made her way over to her dragging Thomas Kord’s son Ted along, who Felicity vaguely remembered from high school in the year above Tommy.

 

“Felicity, this is Teddy Kord, and besides being super handsome, he’s also super smart, and is getting his doctorate in something science-y. Right up your alley, huh?“ Donna squeezed his bicep once winking at Felicity before walking away.

 

Felicity caught Oliver and Laurel under the mistletoe from the corner of her eye, and instead of letting herself linger on the fact that it would never be her, turned to Ted, “Oh god, I’m so sorry about her.”

 

Ted shrugged, “You should meet my mom. MIT right?”

 

She forced herself to smile and mentally prepared herself for the eventual night of awkward small talk with guys she had absolutely no interest in, “Yep.”

 

Thea was right. This party was stupid.


	2. How Tommy Found Out [Chapter 4]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically, Roy is a little shit.

[Basically, Roy is a little shit.]

 

“Merlyn. Retroactivity turning yourself in?” His father- in-law quibed before Tommy had even walked in the precinct.

 

“You’d like that wouldn’t you? To drag your future grandson’s father though the station with all your peers…”

 

“I guess it’s too late to try to get rid of you, “ Lance sighed slightly irritated, “Why are you here?”

 

“I was going to take my wife out to lunch. I called her office and they said she was here.”

 

Lance jerked his head toward the interrogation rooms, “Harper got arrested again. One of these days that kid is going to run out of lives.”

 

Tommy sighed, although Laurel and Ollie spent a lot of time complaining about Roy and how he was a terrible influence on Thea, Felicity spent the same amount of time praising the kid’s virtues, and how he was good to Thea. He, however, chose to be Switzerland.

 

He trudged down the hallway just meet Laurel, as she dragged Roy out of the room, “Seriously Roy, there is going to be a time when I can’t bail you out of something.”

 

Roy just shrugged back at Laurel as if she was merely telling him that his shoes didn’t match his shirt, not that he was heading towards actually prison time.

 

Laurel just sighed, “Is someone picking you up or should I call a taxi for you?”

 

“Don’t have money for a taxi, I’ll see if Thea can pick me up. Hold on, “Roy muttered flipping though his phone, “Huh, Thea just texted me.”

 

“So?” Laurel rolled her eyes slightly impatient.

 

“She can’t pick me up. She said she had a last minute engagement party to plan. I didn’t even know Oliver and Felicity were dating, let alone engaged. Because I’m pretty sure Thea wouldn’t have shut up about it before.”

 

Tommy froze, and Laurel snorted shaking her head, “Please tell me that was a joke.”

 

Roy shrugged, “I don’t think so. I mean, Thea said that her father told her. Mr. Queen doesn’t seem like the person who’d make stuff like that up.”

 

“Tommy?” Laurel turned to him worried; probably noticing that with every moment that went by his jaw clenched even more, to the point he was grinding his teeth together.

 

“Sort of shot gun engagement, right?” Roy was still talking, grinning slightly probably thinking he was funny, “I wonder if he knocked her up or something.”

 

Tommy was definitely punching Oliver in the face the next time he saw him.


	3. Shit List #1 [Chapter 5]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first person to make Tommy’s shit list.

Tommy was gritting his teeth, trying to play off that the fact he broke his hand wasn’t hurting at all, but Oliver could see though the act, “In about five minutes my sister is going to rush into the room. You can’t tell her what happened.”

 

“I can’t tell her that you tried, and failed to get into a fight with Bowen?” He deadpanned, just to meet Tommy’s rolling eyes, “Because I’m sure she knows that already. The kids in this school are noisy fuckers.”

 

“No dumbass, you can tell her that. Just don’t tell her why. She already has enough problems with the kids in this school being jackasses because she skipped a few grades; imagine what would happen if she knew the other crap they are saying about her. I know I shouldn’t wrap her bubble wrap or some other shit, but she’s my baby sister, and no one needs to hear that sort of fucking nonsense being said about them. I know my mom puts up with that kind of shit all the time, because the media is a bunch of dicks, but not Felicity. She’s just fourteen, Jesus.” Tommy hit the side of chair before he remembered his hand, “Fuck!”

 

“Why do you think I punched him? It wasn’t just to protect your weak ass, that shit isn’t cool. I honestly have no idea why Mom is always raving about that tool,” Oliver muttered, because honestly why would his mom want him to act more like Carter if acting like Carter meant going around school telling everyone that all the Merlyn women were a bunch of whores. Yep, clearly he should act more like that fucker.

 

“Omg, what happened?” Tommy tried to shrug it off, instead winces enough that Felicity is looking back at him horror. She turned to Oliver, fire in her eyes, nearly terrifying him into telling her everything. “Who the hell was he trying to fight now?”

 

As if on cue, Carter stormed out the Dean’s office, pointing menacingly at Tommy and Oliver, “I’m suing both of your asses. I’ll take it to court if I have too!”

 

“Mr. Bowen that’s enough! Merlyn, Queen…”

 

Oliver groaned as Tommy made it worse, flipping off Bowen as he followed the Dean back to her office. Bowen’s attempt to lunge back is silenced by the Dean pointing at him to leave the office.

 

“Great,” Felicity muttered chewing on a nail nervously, “Now we need a lawyer.”

 

“Felicity,” Oliver said gently forcing her to look at him, “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to my dad.”

 

“Oliver…”

 

“Hey,” He grabbed her hand briefly, forcing himself to smile for her sake as he walked to his doom. “Don’t worry. I got it.”

 


	4. Miami (Side A) [Chapter 6]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Tommy thinks happened in Miami.

“She’s still not answering,” Tommy muttered fiddling with his phone, after he had unsuccessfully tired to call Felicity for the fifth time in the last hour. He didn’t want to be that annoying overprotective brother, especially after she used her loud voice yesterday to remind him that she was nineteen and his behavior hadn’t been cute ever, but she had agreed to meet them for dinner on the pier four hours ago and then hadn’t shown up.

 

Oliver said he might stop by too, but Tommy wasn’t worried about him, knowing him he probably found some girl at the beach, and they wouldn’t see him again until they left in two days, but this wasn’t normal Felicity behavior.

 

“I’m sure she’s okay,” Laurel said as she gripped his arm, “She might have just lost track of time, or fell asleep on the beach again. We can go check?”

 

He nodded, as he hit redial, this time letting go a sigh of relief when the phone didn’t go through to voice mail again, “Thank god, ‘Lis.”

 

Although it wasn’t her voice that answered back, it was grumbly, familiar, and most definitely male, “Hello?”

 

“Who the hell is this?” Tommy snapped loud enough that a couple across from him glared as they walked by.

 

“Tommy?”

 

He knew that voice. “Oliver?” He growled.

 

“What’s up?” His friend yawed on the other end, only making Tommy more furious, “Why are you yelling?”

 

“You answered my sisters phone.”

 

“Oh. I knew the ringtone wasn’t mine.”

 

Laurel grabbed his arm silently telling him to calm down, but Tommy couldn’t help the images that wouldn’t stop flashing in his mind, “Where is she?”

 

“Oh, we must have fallen asleep. You know what happens when I drink too much whiskey.”

 

Tommy knew all too well what happened when Oliver drank too much whiskey. He had to basically bleach his eyes after that frat party, but the fact that his sister had anything to do with it... He gritted his teeth, trying to keep his voice even, “I’ve been worried. Dinner was four hours ago.”

 

“Fuck, I knew we forgetting something,” Oliver muttered still sounding groggy. “Did you want to….”

 

“No, it’s fine. Is she okay?” Tommy snapped.

 

“Yeah, just drooling on my pillow. Did you want to talk to… why are you angry?”

 

“Because… It doesn’t matter. Good night!” Tommy aggressively hung up.

 

“What happened?” Laurel asked, as she pealed the phone out of his hand, before he broke it.

 

“He slept with her. He totally slept with her,” He knocked over the trashcan next to them, earning a few stares from people passing by, “I fucking knew this would happen!”

 

“Tommy, calm down. Did he actually say that?”

 

“Oh come on, Laurel! You’ve noticed it too. They are always gravitating towards each other like fucking magnets!”

 

They had been like his whole childhood, one minute Oliver was standing next to him, and then next he was standing next to Felicity whispering something in her ear, who had been on the other side of the room. He had prayed nothing had happened before, but the idea was always nagging him in the back of his mind.

 

“Ollie is a dumbass, but I’m sure he’s not stupid enough to answer your sister’s phone after he’s slept with her.”

 

Tommy drew in a deep breath, he wasn’t as confident that Oliver wasn’t that stupid, “Sure.”

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

All he wanted to do was knock out Oliver’s fucking teeth, so he was surprised by the words that came out of his mouth, “Nothing.”

 

He was going to avoid the inevitable for as long as possible, and refusing to acknowledge it was the only way he could do that.

 

And then he was going to give him a black eye.


	5. The Bet [Chapter 8]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy makes a bet he’s sure to win for once. John isn’t as confident.

“Dig. Diggle. I dig it!”

 

John found himself rolling his eyes, as Tommy kept muttering his last name, and various alterations of it.

 

“So,” The idiot finally grew bored with repeating his last name, “I was thinking about that bet.”

 

Lyla would probably lecture him later about making bets with drunk white boys, especially when those drunk white boys were Tommy Merlyn, who had a history of being the worse person to be on a fantasy football league with, but for some reason John couldn’t help himself. “Okay. So what the terms? How long we think the charade can go on before it blows up in Oliver’s face?”

 

Tommy squinted back him in confusion, “Is that what we were betting on? ‘Cause that’s not what I wanted to bet on… I think?”

 

John blinked either he was not understanding what Tommy was talking about, or if Tommy wasn’t understanding what he was talking about. The kid was a little beyond plastered. “Okay? So what are we…?”

 

“While I agree this will completely blow up in his face, I’m betting on how long it will take my fucking idiotic best friend to realize he’s in love with my sister.”

 

That was defiantly not what John was expecting him to say. “You think Oliver is love with Felicity?”

 

Instead of just rolling his eyes Tommy rolled his whole head, “Pleaaase, you think the same thing. And you’ve only known the two of them like half of time I’ve known them.”

 

He couldn’t argue with Tommy on that, in the decade or he had been working for the Queen family, he had gotten pretty used to Felicity and Oliver’s odd dynamitic, her obvious crush on him because for some reason she was the only woman in his life he didn’t treat like crap, and Oliver’s habit of gravitating towards her without realizing it. “Sure, but Oliver is never going to realize that in hundred years.”

 

“I bet you that before my son makes his way into the world, that dumbass will realize that he’s been love with her his whole life.” Tommy touched the side of his nose, before winking.

 

“You seem awful sure of that.” John wasn’t sure if Tommy was actually that confident, or if this was one of those moments when he was about to make a another terrible bet and he was just too drunk to realize it. “I didn’t think you’d be okay with the two of them together.”

 

The look Tommy sent John back was slightly more serious, but full of begrudging acceptance. “True, it’s super gross. But! It’s going to happen whether I fight it or not. So I got to accept it, although I’m never going to let Ollie thinks it’s okay or something. I’m still going give hell him for the rest of forever.”

 

“There you are!” Laurel announced slightly out of breath hand resting on her stomach, smiling kindly at John before turning to her husband, “I’ve been trying to find you for the last half hour. You ready to head home?”

 

“Laurel!” Tommy grabbed her hands staring into her eyes, “You light up my world like nobody else. “

 

“Oh, no,” She sighed wearily, “Tommy stop.”

 

“The way you flip your hair gets me overwelcomed…”

 

She slammed her hand over his mouth, “You know the rule! I don’t care if you drink once in awhile, but you’re not allowed to drunkenly serenade me with One Direction songs. Especially while I’m pregnant, or I will lovingly straggle you in your sleep.”

 

“I love you,” He mumbled into her hand looking up at her with a dazed look, and she released her hand, sending him a warning look when he opened up his mouth again.

 

John snorted, and decided it was time to call it a night, “We can talk about this later Merlyn.”

 

Tommy shook his head, “Nope. If I’m right you give me a hundred. And trust me I will be right.”

 

“What is he betting on now?” Laurel asked tiredly, “If it’s anything to with the Rockets I request kindly that you please ignore him before our kids have no college savings left.”

 

Tommy rolled his eyes, but John spoke for him, “Nope, just Oliver.”

 

“Oh, well, if it’s about how much an idiot he is, have fun boys.” Laurel muttered back, before trying to drag her drunken husband home.


	6. Last Christmas [Chapter 10]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s a blue Christmas without Ollie.

“Why are we standing here?” Roy asked gesturing towards the Holiday party in the other room as Thea firmly refused to move away from the coat closet. “It’s been like twenty minutes.”

 

“Just because, jeeze Roy!” She ignored his irritated rumblings about being forced to get dressed up, _in a fucking suit_ , for a party they weren’t even planning on going into, glancing over the people lingering in the hallway. “It’s tradition.”

 

“Tradition to stand next to the coat closet? Because that is a weird fucking tradition…”

 

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he huffed rolling his eyes before leaning up against the wall scowling. Thea let him whine once again searching for a particular person before nearly running down Janice Bowen in her rush to track that person down.

 

“Ofmph,” Felicity muttered as Thea slammed into her, “Err.. hi, Thea?”

 

“Oh thank god, you’re here! I was so worried when you told me that you were thinking of staying in LA with the gremlin.” Thea rushed out, talking over the annoyed look Felicity sent her for calling her boyfriend ‘the gremlin,’ although he totally was. Thea had met him once when she went to visit Felicity over the summer, and the guy was a total asshole, and completely using her, not that Thea had kept those thoughts to herself.

 

“Ollie is a no show again. That makes what, the second Christmas in a row? And showing up on January 5th so doesn’t count. Not when he was in Bali. He’s in Ibiza this year. Tommy told me, not Ollie! He couldn’t bother to call this time. Oh! And never mind him completely missing my high school graduation.”

 

“Babe, let her breathe.” Roy said as he pulled her off. Thea just shrugged back not really feeling too guilty.

 

“Normally I’m the one talks that much that quickly,” Felicity muttered as she shrugged off her coat. “You must be Roy. Thea’s mentioned you a few times… well a lot of times. She mentions you all of the time.”

 

“Oh,” Thea gestured towards Roy, having forgotten he was there, “Yeah, that’s my boyfriend Roy. This is Felicity she’s like my future sister….”

 

Roy raised his eyebrows at that, “She’s your future sister?”

 

Felicity immediately went on the defense, “I’m your what?”

 

“Like a sister. I said she’s like a sister! Seriously Roy!” She laughed off it off, and while Felicity calmed down, Roy sent her a look like he didn’t believe her for a second.

 

“So no Oliver,” Felicity mumbled when the awkward feeling in the air disappeared, “I can’t even tell you the last time I’ve seen him.” She went quite for a second and Thea knew she was trying to the math in her head, or was reminiscing about him without this shirt off. For the sake of her sanity Thea was going to pretend it was the first.

 

“Over two and half years,” Thea supplied before Felicity got too focused, “At the Applied Science dedication.”

 

“Oh!” Felicity’s eyes widened at that because they both remembered how that day had gone. “The Applied Science’s dedication. That was…”

 

“Yet another moment of my brother’s amazing decision making skills. He got drunk and fell off the stage when he was supposed to be getting a speech.” Thea added for Roy’s benefit. “Class act that one.”

 

“I mean, he had gotten into a huge fight with your dad the night before, and I think he was trying to prove a point, not that of course, that was the best way to…”

 

Thea rolled her eyes; of course Felicity was defending him. “What point? That’s he’s constantly unreliable? God forbid he…”

 

“Thea, there you are!”

 

“Dad,” Thea breathed out, surprised with how much she missed him. He had been out of town for what had seemed like forever, and with everything else that was going on, it was nice to see the one member of her family that wasn’t lying to her for once.

 

He pressed lips to her hair as he pulled her into his arms, “Your mother has announcement to make.”

 

She groaned into his chest.

 

“I know, but if you go without complaining, I’ll sneak you something. Something strong.” He winked as she let go of him rolling her eyes. He didn’t just owe her a drink; he owed her a fucking bottle.

 

“Fine.”

 

“Felicity! I didn’t think you were coming! We need to catch up at some point tonight. I want to know everything that’s been going with you lately.”

 

“Yeah, sure,” Felicity shifted nervously, “Totally.”

 

Thea wanted to snort. She never understood why how Felicity could still be nervous around him, when she was basically family. or could be one day, if Ollie would pull his head out of his ass before Felicity married the gremlin.

 

Robert nodded toward the ballroom, and Thea forced her legs to move. Roy grabbed her hand as if he knew the last thing she wanted to do with was be in a room with any of these people, especially her mother.

 

“First, Robert and I would thank you all for coming to our somewhat unorthodox family tradition, and second I have an announcement to make. For those who don’t know…”

Walter grabbed Moira’s hand, and Thea noticed that a new piece of jewelry that wasn’t there before. The type of sparkly ring that was reserved for people who were pretty serious about each other, and planning on getting married, one that hadn’t been on her mother’s finger for a very long time.

 

“…Walter has asked me to marry him. It was all very …”

 

Thea could barely hear the words her mother was saying, because she too busy trying to focus on her breathing so she could keep the fake smile on her face without looking like a crazy person.

 

It wasn’t like she was completely naïve. She knew that Walter and her mother had gotten serious, but like most things in her life, she didn’t know how serious they gotten. Especially considering she only found out they had been dating like four months ago.

 

Because that would involve someone in her life telling her something for once.

 

Or, just generally giving a shit too even bother too.

 

She really could use Ollie right now. Instead she got Roy struggling to help her as she sneaked out of the room in tears, and it wasn’t even his fault he couldn’t do anything. Unless he flew to Spain, and dragged Ollie’s ass back here, so she could punch him in the face in person, instead of sending him texts of emoticons of knives and other weapons with the caption, _“I’m going kill you the next time I see you.”_

 

All she wanted for Christmas was her stupid idiotic jackass older brother to come home.


	7. Sisters [Chapter 10/11]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurel and Sara have issues.

A loud bang around noon woke Sara up, nearly causing her to roll off Sin’s couch. Rubbing her eyes she padded across the room, and groaned as she glanced though the peephole in the door, knowing she couldn’t pretend not to be home.

 

“You’re unbelievable!”

 

Sara sighed, as she stepped aside letting her sister into the apartment. “Nice to see you too, Laurel.”

 

“What was the first thing you did when you came home? Did you see Dad or did you just skip completely to sleeping with Oliver?” Laurel demanded, folding her arms over her baby bump.

 

“Wow,” Sara muttered glancing at her wrist as if she was wearing a watch, “Two whole days? I’m surprised it took this long.”

 

“Seriously, Sara.”  


“You’re pregnant with your husband, so I know you don’t want him back. So why are you yelling at me?”

 

Laurel pressed her lips together, “That’s not what this is about. This is about your constant need to mess up other people’s relationships. You do realize Oliver is engaged right?”

 

Sara flopped down on the couch rolling her eyes, “So this is about you then?”

 

Her sister snorted sarcastically over her, “Wow. You can’t even see what the problem is here.”

 

“Why am I getting all the blame? Laurel, he cheated too! I never forced him to do anything that he didn’t want to do. You need to stop using me as a punching bag for whatever your mad about. I’m not at fault for everything for everything that is going wrong in your life!”

 

“Sara,” Laurel started speaking slowly, “It’s about you and Oliver. Just stay away from him.”

 

“Well, I doubt that it’s going to be a problem, he’s been ignoring all my texts. And for the record he didn’t even try anything the other night. Guess he’s serious about this engagement thing.”

 

Laurel deflated. “Okay. Good….” She paused, “I should go.”

 

Sara waited until Laurel was leaving to shout, “You know you’ll have to forgive me one day?”

 

She wasn’t surprised when all she got was a slammed door.


	8. Stupid Buttercup [Chapter 12]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity is really terrible at this babysitting thing

Felicity was the worst babysitter in the history of babysitters. Not that she really considered this babysitting, because it seemed pretty impractical that Thea would need a babysitter when both her parents, brother, and a entire staff of people were all home too. But Felicity only had herself to blame. She was the one who had mentioned to Robert that she wished she wasn’t thirteen and could get an afterschool job, so she could buy some extra computer parts.

 

(Okay sure, she could have asked her mom and Donna would have given it to her, even though they really couldn’t afford it.)

 

And as predicted, Robert offered to ‘loan’ her the money. She said no, because she wasn’t stupid, he wasn’t going to ‘loan’ her money, he was going to give it to her under the guise of a ‘loan’, and then later tell her not to worry about it.

 

Because he had done it before.

 

Several times.

 

So she said no, that she had to earn it. Which had somehow morphed into him coming up with ridiculous jobs (like debugging his virus free personal laptop) that he insanely overpaid her for doing.

 

Like unnecessary babysitting Thea.

 

Not that Felicity didn’t like Thea, because she did, even if the eight-year-old spent ninety nine percent of her time talking about horses.

 

And pretty they were, and how Robert brought her one, and how she brushed it, and how she named it Butttercup, and how she fed it yesterday, and it was her favorite thing in the whole world.

 

Felicity was really trying to listen, because she was getting paid three hundred dollars an hour for this, but to be honest she had tuned Thea out about twenty minutes ago.

 

Which had been about the same time her brother and Oliver had decided to go swimming.

 

Shirtless.

 

Shirtless. All. The. Time.

 

“Buttercup is brown and white and…

 

“That’s awesome, Thea,” She muttered as she pretended that she wasn’t daydreaming about Oliver, which had lasted all five seconds, or at least long enough that someone was looming over her without noticing.

 

“Felicity.” She winced jumping as Oliver stood over her with that stupid smug smile of his.

 

“You’re a terrible babysitter,” He had leaned over to whisper into her ear.

 

“I… what?” She tried to speak over her embarrassment, but it was kind of difficult when he was standing right next to her.

 

“You didn’t notice that Speedy stormed off five minutes ago.”

 

She whipped around to see Thea pouting in the kitchen with Raisa though the window, “Oh.”

 

“She was talking about horses again wasn’t she?” He grinned joking as he walked back to Tommy, “You better apologize. Refusing to listen to stories about her horse is practically a criminal offense in her eyes.”

 

Felicity hoped he hadn’t noticed her cheeks burning.

 

_Stupid Buttercup._


	9. Operation: GFL [Chapter 13]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thea has a plan. Roy thinks this is going to end terribly.

“I need to get Felicity laid.”

 

The comment had come completely out of the blue, and Roy set down the case of beer he had been holding to glance at his girlfriend, “What?”

 

“It isn’t fair. Oliver is clearly doing his self-destructing thing with Sara again, because it’s him, and he always does that shit. And it’s not fair he gets a mistress and she doesn’t.”

 

There was no logical way to answer that, so he just settled for, “Okay?”

 

“Roy!” Thea whined from behind the bar, clearly annoyed he wasn’t getting it.

 

“It’s just a little a weird you want to line up a booty call for your brother’s fiancé.”

 

“Fake fiancé!”

 

“Whatever,” He muttered, “It’s still weird, and especially since you’ve been wishing they would get together your whole life.”

 

“I’ve never said that!”

 

“Really? Because I vaguely remember the words ‘OMG, she’s finally going to be my sister! Best. Day. Ever!” He pitched his voice at the end only to earn a glare from Thea.

 

“I did not sound like that!”

 

He shrugged as he went back to work, knowing that Thea was clearly up to something, “I’m just surprised you don’t have some sort of genius plan that involves turning that fake engagement into a real marriage.”

 

She pouted, scurrging up her nose, trying to play it off, “I wish I did, but in the mean time, I’m going to get Felicity a boy toy.”

 

Roy placed the case he was holding on the counter she was leaning on, “I doubt Felicity is going to agree to this. She’s the type of person who only likes to sleep with people she’s known for more then like five seconds.”

 

His girlfriend sent him a less then impressed look.

 

“I’m just saying. You can’t just hire her a hooker. You weren’t going to hire a hooker, were you?”

 

Thea rolled her eyes at him, and he could tell she was losing patience with him, “No, god Roy. I was just going to set her up with a slutty Tinder profile.”

 

“Because that idea is any better. She’ll find it five seconds, and then lock you out of your trust fund until your ninety.”

 

“You can chill on the sarcasm.”

 

“I’m being realistic. It’s a terrible idea.”

 

“I don’t see you coming up with a better one!” Thea accursed and Roy rolled his eyes.

 

“Yea, because I don’t want to get in the middle of whatever disaster you’re planning.”

 

She muttered something under her breath as she sat her head on the counter pouting, something that vaguely sounded like ‘this wasn’t going according to plan’.

 

If Thea hadn’t looked so upset he wouldn’t have said anything at all. “What we need to do is set Felicity up with someone who doesn’t know her or Oliver. Like a complete stranger. But not a creepy stranger, someone we actually know.”

 

Thea sat up straight, “Do you know someone?”

 

Roy shrugged trying not to grin, “I don’t know, maybe.”

 

“Roy!”

 

“Fine, I might have a friend.”

 

“Oh, god! Not McGinnis. He’s such a dick.”

 

He rolled his eyes, “Thea, why would I set her up with McGinnis? I actually like Felicity.”

 

“I don’t know; do you have any other friends?” She narrowed in on him, “Because I’ve literally never met any of them.”

 

“Thea, I know other people. It’s just most of them are in jail, and… criminals.”

 

“Roy!”

 

“Look,” He paused, “My foster brother is in town this week. We’ll set him up with her.”

 

“Your foster brother?” Thea narrowed her eyes in on him, “Which foster brother? Not the one who keeps trying to get you to sell drugs?”

 

“Do I look like I’d set Felicity up with a drug dealer? Trust me, he’s our guy. Considering your whole plan is just to make Oliver jealous.”

 

She shook her head, “Roy. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just want Felicity to be happy.”

 

Roy rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone, trying to figure out how he was going to explain any of this to Barry, “Yeah. Okay, Thea. Whatever you say.”


End file.
